“Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio has signaled he may embrace a series of limited changes to the nation’s immigration laws in the coming months, giving advocates for change new hope that 2014 might be the year that a bitterly divided Congress reaches a political compromise to overhaul the sprawling system.” [NYT]

“The Obama administration faced a fresh challenge to its health-care law just as many of its key provisions took effect Wednesday, after an eleventh-hour Supreme Court ruling temporarily allowed some Catholic groups not to cover birth control in their employee health plans.” [WashPost]

“At 8 a.m. New Year’s Day, in an industrial area a few miles from downtown Denver, a former Marine named Sean Azzariti walked into a giant store and bought a bag of weed. Legally. To smoke just for fun, if he’s so inclined. Azzariti’s transaction—3.5 grams of Bubba Kush for $40 and some pot-laced chocolate truffles for an additional $9.28 — was the first in the state’s grand experiment in legalizing marijuana for recreational use.” [WashPost]

Well, I go to watch a very disturbing movie (The Purge) and all hell breaks loose. I was reading through the "discussion" and the first thing I thought was "Why?" It was interesting in a train-wreck sort of way though.

It's weird. I'm a very stoic guy. I've got a very short and explosive temper. You wouldn't think those two would be paired together, but they really do sit there in me. I hate it about myself. My wife hates it more. It is by far my worst trait. I've got an inflated ego that I'm constantly trying to combat and whenever it feels afronted, it wants to go after things.

One advantage of the Internet is you can always not post what you're thinking - that you can say it and stop yourself before your words reach someone else's ear (well....eyes...but yeah). It's invaluable to me. My temper, my ego make up far too much of what I want to say and it allows me to filter myself somewhat. Today....it failed completely. I lost it....

And what bugs me most....I don't know why I lost it. Collie's an idiot. His opinion should mean nothing to me. He doesn't listen to reason and his arguments are ridiculous. Even in the middle of it, I was sure that he wasn't affecting me and his statements were more humorous than not.

So why did I lose it?

I didn't even really realize I'd lost it until after I posted, but I did.

And it's driving me nuts.

Regardless, I want to apologize to the community. I should have better control of my emotions and the discussion here shouldn't be about me and my need to push on it and fix him extended a debate that should have been dead a long time before. I knew Collie had nothing to offer to the debate. I knew he was going to finger me - he'd hinted at it for three posts so I don't know why I was pressing so hard. I knew absolutely no part of that debate would help in any way, shape or form other than to further prove he was an idiot who had no reading comprehension skills. I shouldn't have chased that rabbit. It wasn't worth it. I'm sorry about that. And I'm sorry that I kept pushing it until it was nothing but my ego vs Collie.

"The trouble, though, is that it’s difficult to know with certainty who’s right. The Republican number appears to have been made up out of whole cloth – GOP officials have refused to substantiate the claim, but keep repeating it anyway – but Democrats can’t produce a definitive alternative figure.

To that end, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Dems on the House Energy and Commerce Committee published a report (pdf) this week intended to bring the debate into sharper focus. As George Zornick reported, Waxman found that even if we use the Republicans’ figure as a dubious baseline, the specific outcomes leave the GOP argument in tatters.

* According to the report, half of the 4.7 million will have the option to renew their 2013 plans, thanks to an administrative fix this year.* Of the remaining 2.35 million individuals, 1.4 million should be eligible for tax credits through the marketplaces or Medicaid, according to the report.* Of the remaining 950,000 individuals, fewer than 10,000 people in 18 counties will lack access to an affordable catastrophic plan.

In other words, even giving Republicans the benefit of the doubt, we’re looking at 10,000 Americans on the individual market who (a) can’t keep their existing plan; (b) can’t enroll in Medicaid; (c) can’t get subsidized coverage through an exchange;and(d) can’t get catastrophic coverage."

I would never apologize to a troll. They feed on carnage as see it as victory. Colli is a lightweight. He's here to pick and poke at people. That's your typical 'winger. What they can't make up in intellect they compensate with misery.

Sacred, I recommend you watch Wolf of Wall Street instead - LOTS of profanity, nudity, drug use, and money falling from the sky (the yacht scene with the Feds). Maybe I should consider a career change, hmm.

Well, your pals here don't quite comprehend the atrocities that have accompanied communism across the globe. Some want to compare them to the evils of capitalism, but there is no comparison to the inhumanity that invariably accompanies these totalitarian regimes.

Others buoyed by their happy talk TV don't quite understand that millions of Americans who had medical insurance last week don't have it today. In particular they don't comprehend how inflated are the enrollment numbers reported by "the most open administration in history," which isn't reporting any details.

FL, my opinion only, but I don't think you need to apologize, but Collie does. HE provoked your reactions; you did not initiate them. And yes, provoking reactions in a bad way fits one of the classic definitions of trollery. Thus, this may be more proof he should be ignored and poffed until he cleans up his act.

@forgottenlord, that was a pretty interesting personal glimpse forgottenlord. I'm kind of the opposite. I get quieter and calmer the more angry I get. I'm most out of control when I go into "emotionless" mode. My worst trait is probably being verbally cruel. When you say terrible things in a flat and emotionless voice, it just seems to cut even deeper. That's why I just walk away when I feel it coming on. It infuriates people when they're yelling and I'm making them strain to hear what I'm saying. That drives my wife up the wall because she says it's like there's no one home.

@La_Randy It is also wildly ironic that Republicans seem so concerned about those 10,000 people when governors or legislatures of their own party are stranding more than 10x that number of people without insurance by refusing to expand Medicaid.

Next week is going to be brutally cold. I'm off the first two days and I'm not looking forward to walking from the train for the rest of the days.

Yesterday I had to walk in about 2-3 feet of snow for long stretches since none of the side walks were shoveled. What is usually a 25 minute walk turned into over 45 minutes and I was very exhausted afterwards. But one benefit of having lived in a much colder country is to learn how to dress for weather like this.

I agree. I went to bed early last night, so i didn't see this - but i don't think you have anything to apologize for FL. Collie does. And i think my vote is to poof on site unless one of his posts starts with - i apologize for being a troll.

I used to be horribly verbally cruel. Not because I somehow acted like that without provocation, but because it was a defensive tool of mine cooping with bullies. I try not too because it makes me feel worse afterwards.

I only get really cranky when I don't get enough sleep or when someone can't understand simple directions without at least somewhat of a curiosity of trying to figure out what I'm saying.

@forgottenlord, my wife and I almost never argue. The worst argument we ever had ended in me advancing on her and her taking in a sharp breath. I kissed her on the forehead and said that I was going downstairs and for her to stay away from me until I calmed down (kind of weird when I said it like I asking where the remote was).

I give up on him. As often as I whine about respecting private property and the need to behave on someone else's property - which is highly ironic that some righties refuse to respect said property when property rights are a cornerstone of conservative philosophy, but I digress - I rarely vote for outright bans (KG was the worst and had to go), but collie has crossed over to poffing when needed.

@La_Randy I just want him to explain, once and for all, what he believes will happen should Obamacare fail. I want to know why he's so perversely giddy at the thought of millions of people being stripped of access to health care.

The plan claimed 1.1 million people have “enrolled,” but did not say
what the “enrolled” term means. A person is not insured until he or she
pays the first premium and receives a “welcome packet,” but the administrations and most states have kept these figures closely guarded.

I wonder who decided on that qualifier? I haven't heard it before in any other news source.

Could be the same guy who was quoting the prostitutes in South America that turned out to be - oh wait, that turned out to be made up.

It was a interesting movie but it sorta fell a little flat. I don't know what was missing in it; maybe because the backstory wasn't all that built out and that the neighbors coming in the end kinda felt a little contrived.

Plus the son constantly acting like a moronic tool just to add some kind of plot feature was way beyond the horror cliche of opening doors when you know demons are around.

If you consider that he's a flaming Libertarian, it will all make sense. It's just another of the many facets of social Darwinism that they crave. You know, survival of the most economically fit and all that.

@deconstructiva@La_Randy Yeah, I'm done with him, too. His "I want it to fail because it wasn't bipartisan" is a load of BS. He wants it to fail because it's got Obama's fingerprints on it, and that's reason enough to leave millions – including sick children – stranded without health care.

That's a kind of heartlessness I just don't get. I'm not a huge fan of the ACA – I'm on the single-payer left – but it's all we've got at the moment, and we owe it to our fellow citizens to make it work as best we can. We did that with Medicare Part D, right?

I mean, Jesus, how many people have to suffer just so he and others like him get to dance around and crow "I was right!"? How many lives is his hatred of Obama worth? Because that's what we're talking about here – people's lives. This isn't some esoteric political theory, this is life and death.

@collioure@Sue_N The GOP added 200 provisions to the ACA bill and the Democrats allowed them to and yet didn't vote for it because it didn't give a tax cut to Mittens. The GOP is really the party of gangsters, oligarchs, and plutocrats and they don't give a damn about the people who buy their products and without whom they would have to mingle with in the streets. Well, since 70%+ of the economy is consumer based, it doesn't seem real bright to kill the source of your money but there is no IQ test for the US House or Senate..

@collioure@Sue_N "For one thing, I really detest how this law came into being. I won't go into the sordid details. A major social program like this requires bipartisan input and bipartisan support start to finish."

That's a pile of crock. You obviously missed Republicans in the mid-terms bragging about what they got in the plan. It's a f . . . ing Republican Romney/Nixon/Heritage Foundation health care plan. It is in no way, shape or form a Democratic plan. Obama did not take the REid/Pelosi plan and merge it - he called in the author of the Massachusetts plan and rewrote it and told them to pass it. And pass it they did - A Republican health care plan. After months and months of winding it's way through the spaghetti factory of Congress Obama handed you a Republican plan. You don't like it - get Republicans to change it. Maybe a brave REpublican will step forward and give us a Democratic plan. Those things used to happen before the party fell off the cliff.

This is why arguing with a sycophant is pointless. The articles states that 5 million people got their policy cancelled and 3 million signed up for ACA.

For collie to be right, ONLY the people who got cancelled signed up and NONE of the people who got cancelled got insurance some other way.

But as everyone knows, collie's got a bad case of ODS. He's sees the headline, scan the numbers, subtracts 2 from 5 and declares Obama the loser. The end. We can all go back to our moronic third grade classrooms like the bunch of useful idiots and incompetently community organize ourselves.

For one thing, I really detest how this law came into being. I won't go into the sordid details. A major social program like this requires bipartisan input and bipartisan support start to finish. This is not the first time you've heard this from me.

Furthermore this particular plan was never polished up for passage. It's slipshod and as a result may be tripped up in the courts soon.

What should happen, since Americans do want health care fixed in major ways, is a bipartisan effort to reform the ACA.

Some people are born sociopaths and don't give a damn about anyone. That could explain a lot of teavangelical / "libertarian" rabid dogs out there. I suspect many others simply don't look beyond their own noses and see how our scoial problems ...until it hits THEM. They don't want to "waste" tax dollars on unemployment benefits until THEY need them, or on infrastructure that they use daily but don't realize it. They think their small biz's need less Socialist Govt. oversight ...until food poisoning and tainted Chinese suppliers (the Menu Foods pet disaster still p!sses me off though my cat avoided it) affect them. And so on. Watching Wolf of Wall St. shows in graphic detail how shortsighted greed and self-indulgence at other's expense is an eye-opener. Sue, maybe you'd love this film but warn the hubby and kids that it's well-salted with nudity and profanity. Thus I recommend it.

@collioure And, again, I have to ask (apparently I am a glutton for nonsense) why this makes you so happy.

Why are you so gleefully hopeful that the ACA will fail? Why are you so eager to see an attempt to help millions of uninsured Americans obtain access to health care go down in flames?

And what, exactly (that would mean citations), do you foresee taking its place if it does fail?

You've admitted yourself that the GOP doesn't seem to have an alternative plan – and you're right. They don't. If Obamacare fails, there is no backup. The GOP will not suddenly come up with a national health care plan, because such a thing is anathema to them. Notice that they don't talk about "repeal and replace" any more. It's just "repeal."

So, should you get your dearest wish and Obamacare fails, what do you think is going to happen to all those people who will be left in the lurch?

The total reported signups are at least 3 million fewer than the 5 million people whose health-insurance policies were cancelled prior to Christmas by President Barack Obama’s ambitious tax-and-healthcare scheme.

The numbers also assume that everyone of those 5 million who was got a cancellation, never got another plan.*

It really is a poorly researched article and an attempt to skew the numbers to support a predisposition. At the very least, it's an incredible misleading headline.

*By the way, I was one of those that got cancelled because my previous plan wasn't ACA compliant. My new plan is less than my old plan, and my spouse's pre-existing condition is now covered. I'm not a big fan of anecdotes as proof, but there ya go.

The reason you are unaware of that paragraph is that you are misinformed by the biased news sources which you frequent. I've been hearing that for months.

The administration heretofore has counted as "enrolled" anyone who selected a plan on the website, that is, placed it in his shopping basket. I have about 4 new laptops in shopping baskets on the web right now. I'm not actually going to buy any of them.